Greens co-founder backs senators over split on koala park carbon credits

A prominent founding figure of the Australian Greens has backed three senators who broke ranks over a native forest carbon credit plan linked to the Great Koala National Park in New South Wales. The intervention comes after the party split over whether to support the federal method used to register the project. The dispute has also drawn a sharp response from Labor, which rejected claims that the plan amounts to commodifying the environment.

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The issue centres on the Improved Native Forest Management method, or INFM, a federal scheme that allows state governments to earn carbon credit units by stopping planned logging in defined areas of public native forest. Those credits can then be sold to organisations seeking to offset emissions. The New South Wales government says it wants to introduce legislation to formally reserve the park boundary as soon as possible, while the forestry industry is weighing the implications of the park announcement for its future.

On Thursday, Greens senators Nick McKim, Vanessa Bleyer and Jordon Steele-John crossed the floor to vote with the Coalition on a disallowance motion against the method. The motion was defeated in the Senate by 34 votes to 27. Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan also crossed the floor, voting with Labor.

The Greens had previously struck a deal with Labor to support the scheme after securing changes, including restrictions preventing coal and gas projects from using offsets. The split matters because it exposes a tension inside the Greens between support for climate policy tools and opposition to market-based mechanisms tied to forest protection. The Great Koala National Park has become a focal point in that debate because it combines conservation goals with carbon accounting and the future of commercial forestry.

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For Labor, the plan is part of a broader emissions framework; for critics inside the Greens, it raises concerns about whether habitat protection should be turned into a tradable credit. Australian Greens founding figure Bob Brown said he backed the three senators who voted against the party line, while not believing the split weakens the authority of the party leader. He said those who voted with Labor had, in his view, chosen "the lesser of two evils".

He also said he would have made the same decision if he were in the Senate, describing the issue as a "very big moral issue". What remains unclear is how the internal disagreement will affect the Greens' position as the park proposal moves forward and the INFM method faces continued scrutiny. The New South Wales government still needs to progress legislation to formally reserve the park boundary, and the federal carbon credit framework remains central to the dispute.

The vote has been settled for now, but the political and environmental arguments around the park are likely to continue.

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